The future of Harvard’s president is uncertain as the council meets
The future of Harvard University President Claudine Gay was at stake Monday as the school’s governing body met amid calls for her removal following widely criticized comments she made last week about anti-Semitism on campus.
While donors mounted a pressure campaign to force Dr. Gay, about 700 Harvard faculty members came to her defense in several open letters. A, of black faculty members, called the attacks on the president “apparently and politically motivated.” The letter, written and signed by some of Harvard’s most prominent professors, stated that Dr. Gay “should be given the opportunity to serve her term to demonstrate her vision for Harvard.”
Dr. Gay, who took over the university’s top job in July, is Harvard’s first black president.
Critics of Dr. Gay have brought their case to public attention. One of the most outspoken, William A. Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, wrote on the social media site
A letter expressing “no confidence” in Dr. Gay also received support on Monday. It was signed by Harvard students and alumni urging her to resign or be removed from her position. “It is not appropriate for Claudine Gay to serve as president of Harvard as she does not represent our collective values or the Harvard we have come to know,” the letter said.
The Harvard community has been plunged into one of its deepest crises in years, forcing it to reckon with difficult issues of race, religion and tolerance. Similar debates are playing out on college campuses across the country, as school administrators are accused of ignoring or downplaying incidents of anti-Semitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.
Underlying these debates is a tension between, on the one hand, students and many professors who say their freedom of expression is being suppressed, and on the other hand, alumni and politicians who complain that universities have allowed intolerance to grow unchecked.
As of Monday afternoon, the dueling open letters and social media posts were the only public record of the dispute. The university’s governing body, the Harvard Corporation, which could have the final say on Dr. Gay, met behind closed doors. No agenda for the meeting has been made available. A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment Monday on the board meeting.
The followers of Dr. Gay hoped she would avoid the fate of University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill, who resigned under pressure on Saturday over her comments on anti-Semitism.
Dr. Gay, Ms. Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth testified before Congress last week at a hearing that Republicans in the House of Representatives were meeting to address issues of bias against Jewish students. Their answers – non-committal, hesitant and legalistic – to questions about how their schools’ disciplinary policies would apply to students who called for the genocide of the Jews outraged many people.
Congress has opened an investigation into the three universities, with Republicans threatening to subpoena school administrators.
Dr. Gay has since apologized for her comments, saying her words had increased the suffering and pain on campus.
According to Melani Cammett, professor of international relations and one of the lead organizers, a letter of support from faculty that began circulating this weekend had collected nearly 700 signatures as of Monday morning.
Signatories to the various letters included some of Harvard’s most prominent names: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a literary critic; Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law scholar; Randall Kennedy, law professor; Annette Gordon-Reed, a historian of early America; William Julius Wilson, a sociologist; and Jason Furman, an economist and former adviser to former President Barack Obama.
Jenna Russell reporting contributed.